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{"id":1869,"date":"2010-05-10T06:23:33","date_gmt":"2010-05-10T10:23:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tmatt.net\/?p=1869"},"modified":"2010-05-10T06:23:33","modified_gmt":"2010-05-10T10:23:33","slug":"voices-of-unbelievers-in-pulpits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2010\/05\/voices-of-unbelievers-in-pulpits\/","title":{"rendered":"Voices of unbelievers, in pulpits"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

On Sunday mornings, you will find him leading hymns in one of the independent Church of Christ congregations somewhere in South Carolina.<\/p>\n

Call him \u201cAdam.\u201d He is a church administrator, a \u201cworship minister\u201d and a self-proclaimed \u201catheist agnostic.\u201d That last detail is a secret. After all, his wife and teen-aged children are devout believers and he needs to stay employed.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere\u2019s how I\u2019m handling my job. \u2026 I see it as playacting. I kind of see myself as taking on a role of a believer in a worship service, and performing,\u201d he said, during an interview for the \u201cPreachers who are not Believers (.pdf)<\/a>\u201d report from the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know how to pray publicly. I can lead singing. I love singing. I don\u2019t believe what I\u2019m saying anymore in some of these songs. But I see it as taking on the role and performing. Maybe that\u2019s what it takes for me to get myself through this, but that\u2019s what I\u2019m doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The researchers behind this report do not claim they can document whether this phenomenon is rare or common. What they have right now is anecdotal material drawn from confidential interviews with five male Protestant ministers \u2014 three in liberal denominations and two from flocks that, as a rule, are conservative. An ordained Episcopal Church woman was interviewed, but withdrew just before publication.<\/p>\n

The authors of the report are philosopher Daniel C. Dennett, an outspoken leader in the movement many call the \u201cNew Atheism,\u201d and Linda LaScola, a clinical social worker with years of qualitative research experience. She is also an atheist, but, until recently, was a regular churchgoer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started with a pilot study because this is very new ground,\u201d said LaScola, who conducted the interviews. \u201cWe are planning to do a larger study in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

The key is circulating this early material and then finding more ministers who are willing to be interviewed. The initial participants were found through contacts with the Center For Progressive Christianity and the Freedom from Religion Foundation. As this report candidly states: \u201cOur sample is small and self-selected, and it is not surprising that all of our pastors think that they are the tip of an iceberg, but they are also utterly unable to confirm this belief.\u201d<\/p>\n

What unites these ministers is their isolation from the believers in their pews, their awareness that they cannot honestly discuss their doubts and evolving beliefs. They also struggle with labels such as \u201catheist\u201d or \u201cagnostic,\u201d often insisting that they remain believers of some kind \u2014 although they reject Christian doctrines or even theism.<\/p>\n

This tension, the authors stressed, is \u201cno accident\u201d in these postmodern times.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ambiguity about who is a believer and who a nonbeliever follows inexorably from the pluralism that has been assiduously fostered by many religious leaders for a century and more: God is many different things to different people, and since we can\u2019t know if one of these conceptions is the right one, we should honor them all,\u201d noted Dennett and LaScola. \u201cThis counsel of tolerance creates a gentle fog that shrouds the question of belief in God in so much indeterminacy that if asked whether they believed in God, many people could sincerely say that they don\u2019t know what they are being asked.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than anything else, the report offers a striking mix of voices and motives.<\/p>\n

\u201cDarryl\u201d the Presbyterian still calls himself a \u201cJesus Follower,\u201d but adds: \u201cI reject the virgin birth. I reject substitutionary atonement. I reject the divinity of Jesus. I reject heaven and hell in the traditional sense, and I am not alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s \u201cWes\u201d the United Methodist: \u201cI think the word God can be used very expressively in some of my more meditative modes. I\u2019ve thought of God as a kind of poetry that\u2019s written by human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n

A retired United Church of Christ pastor, \u201cRick,\u201d has learned to add this subtle disclaimer when reciting creeds: \u201cLet us remember our forefathers and mothers in the faith who said, \u2018dot, dot, dot, dot\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJack\u201d the Southern Baptist has concluded that the \u201cgrand scheme of Christianity, for me, is a bunch of bunk.\u201d Thus, he is quietly planning a new career.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf somebody said, \u2018Here\u2019s $200,000,\u2019 I\u2019d be turning my notice in this week, saying, \u2018A month from now is my last Sunday.\u2019 Because then I can pay off everything.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"